Bring It Back
by Queen Bookworm the First
Summary: QLFC Quarterfinals


**Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition: Quarterfinals**

Team: Wimbourne Wasps

Position: Beater 2

**Prompt**: Use the Beater 1 prompt for their least favorite round this season.

Round 9: Love of My Life by Queen (Bring it back, bring it back)

**Optional Prompts**:

9\. [colour] Dark orange

10\. [word] tenuous

**AN**: Muggle AU

* * *

She's just the girl sitting on the bar stool every night, staring out the window.

At least, that's all she should be.

But to Scabior, she's more than just a girl. She's more than a girl who never smiles, more than a girl who looks like she's been frozen in a state of misery. She's more than cracked lips, more than puffy eyes rimmed by red.

Scabior knows that if you look closer, if you squint, if you really, really search, you can see something behind the mask. Something so precious and tenuous, something you can hate and love at the same time. Something that Scabior just _can't _place.

Maybe it's because it's something he never _sees._

* * *

A smile tugs at Scabior's lips as he runs a hand through his hair. The tangled brown strands wrapping around his fingers, refusing to let go. "Give me an Avada Kedavra!" Yaxley yells over the constant clattering of the dishes and chopping of knives..

Scabior pulls on his gloves, cracking his fingers. "How spicy?" he asks, throwing a glance at the customer, who smirks.

"Very spicy." A harsh laugh escapes the man's lips. "I like my food that way."

Scabior grins at him, hoping that he won't notice the slight yellow that mars his teeth. "Good choice," he says. With practiced ease, he grabs the ingredients as the man lists them off and places them in the soft burrito carefully.

He wraps the finished burrito in the special foil branded with the Death Eater logo. Much to his satisfaction, he's noticed that the man has been staring at the burrito with a hungry glint in his eyes. With a chuckle, he sets it down into the bag—which also bears the Death Eater sign—and hands it to the cashier.

Scabior pulls off his gloves as he calls out, "Taking a break. Be back in a few." He grabs his dinner—just a sandwich stuffed in a paper bag as usual because Scabior doesn't feel like doing much else in the morning—and walks out from behind the counter. He sits down at an empty table, leaning back and resting his feet on the green vinyl.

"On the house," Alecto says, her lips stretching out in a ghastly grin as she sets a cup of fizzing soda down before him. She throws him what she thinks—what Alecto thinks is _always_ horribly wrong—is a flirtatious wink before sauntering off. Scabior bites the inside of his cheek to hold back the laughter bubbling up.

He's eating, just eating, the first time he sees _her._ It seems wrong that it is so ordinary, so… mundane. How could anything be mundane when it came to _her?_

The first thing Scabior knows when he sees her is that she is anything but mundane.

She is dark red lipstick, black-lined eyes. She is laughs and smirks and _those smiles._

She walks in with a boy—Scabior thinks it's a Malfoy from the glaringly blond hair. They're laughing and sharing those secret looks that make Scabior so, so jealous for some strange reason. Her dark orange dress sways around her legs, and all Scabior can think is that she's a flame, dancing bright and fierce, unapologetic when she burns. He doesn't know this girl, but seeing her there, with _him_, fills him with rage.

Scabior watches as she saunters up to the counter, examining her fingers idly as she lists off what she wants, wearing a careless smirk. Scabior doesn't know why, but that smirk is _precious._

He leans forward slightly, trying to hear what the Malfoy boy's saying to her, but all he can hear is the name _Pansy._

_Pansy._

For now, that's enough. It's just a name, but it's more than anything he can have.

_Pansy._

He has a feeling that this princess is going to drive him insane.

* * *

It's a month later when he sees her again. By then, he's almost forgotten about her, but that name keeps coming back, keeps whispering. _Pansy._

It breaks his heart to see her this time.

With the first glance, he can tell she's _broken._

Scabior can't help but walk over. He pulls out the bar stool beside her and sits down sighing. Turning slightly, he stares at her from the corner of his eye. He can see the tell-tale tracks of dried tears smeared across her face.

"Stop looking at me," she snaps, swiveling around to face him. She's not wearing dark orange today, and Scabior can tell that it's more than just the color. It's the way the flame has been smothered.

Scabior nods, his throat dry. What should he say? "Anything wrong?" he asks. _Of course something's wrong, you dolt. _He curses his stupidity.

Pansy glares at him through watery eyes, pulling at the ends of her hair. "None of your business."

"I'm making it my business," he says, meeting her eyes with a small smile. "What's wrong?"

"Bloody waiters," she mutters. "Think they deserve to know everything."

"I'm still here, you know."

"Shut up." Pansy bites her lip. "Just leave me alone, will you?"

"No can do, princess." _Princess._ The word rolls off his tongue so easily. It's like he's known her for so long.

Almost immediately, she growls. Just like that, all the brokenness disappears, and she's not weak anymore. No, she's a snake ready to bite. "Don't _ever_ call me princess."

Scabior wonders if the Malfoy boy called her princess.

"It's alright, you know," he says after a long moment of thinking. She regards him with a hint of curiosity in her eyes. "It's alright to tell people that everything's not okay."

"Why do you care?" she asks. He hears her whisper, "When did people get hearts?"

"Everyone has a heart, princess." Her gaze snaps back to him. "Some people don't show it." He takes a deep breath. "Sometimes it's because their hearts are too heavy."

"If your heart's heavy, you're weak," she says. "I'm weak."

He can tell how much it hurts her to say that.

"You're not weak, princess." He can see that someone's sucked all the life out of Pansy. But she's more than the tenuous state her heart is in now.

Pansy stares at him before a tear slips out of her eye. She swipes her hand across her face quickly, turning away.

Someone's sucked the life out of her, and Scabior's going to bring it back.


End file.
